Snowplows are commonplace in areas which require removal of snow from roads, parking lots and other locations. The snowplow is usually fitted on the front end of a vehicle and generally comprises a principal snowplow blade as well as sidewing for certain applications.
There exist several types of mechanisms for installation of the blade and the sidewing on the front of the vehicle. In order to facilitate mounting of the blades, several parallelogram lift system plows allow installation of the blade on the vehicle through a standard coupling plate installed on the front of the vehicle comprising a number of coupling receptacles. The coupling receptacles are adapted to receive corresponding coupling mechanisms arranged on a standard blade support plate attached to the rear of the blade. The configurations of the blades themselves may vary but they are all usually attached to different standard blade support plates.
Mounting of the blade on the truck is accomplished through installation of the blade support plate on a corresponding vehicle coupling plate.
North-American snowplows often require the use of a sidewing in addition to the front blade in situations where the blade offers poor snow removal efficiencies and capacity due to the limited width of the blade. Unfortunately, in order to use sidewings on vehicles having the European-type coupling plate, the sidewing structure typically has to be installed directly on the vehicle or any coupling structure fixed on the vehicle. This configuration imposes limits on the number of blade-sidewing configurations that can easily be used with a same vehicle.
In situations where the sidewing has been installed on the vehicle with a European-type coupling plate, it is possible to easily have a blade-sidewing combination for certain uses as the blade is installed on the coupling plate. However, if a use of the vehicle does not require the front blade, the front blade may be removed quickly though the coupling plate, but the sidewing and its associated sidewing support structure remain attached to the vehicle and cannot be removed as quickly.
Similarly, if certain applications only require the use of the plow blade and not the sidewing, the current vehicle configuration does not allow rapid removal of the sidewing as it is fixed to the vehicle and can only be unmounted through a more complicated procedure that requires significant downtime for the vehicle. In certain cases, even if the sidewing is removed temporarily, a sidewing support structure must be left on the vehicle to facilitate eventual reinstallation of the sidewing, which leaves the truck with a certain amount of dead weight associated with the sidewing support structure.
Unfortunately, there is presently no system which allows rapid installation and removal of snowplow blades and sidewings on the front of a vehicle, with the flexibility of being able to reconfigure the vehicle rapidly between a number of configurations. These configurations include having the vehicle without the blade and sidewing, having the vehicle with the blade and sidewing, and having the vehicle with the front blade only or the sidewing only.
Thus, there is still presently a need for a system which allows rapid installation and removal of different implements, such as snowplow blades and sidewings, on the front of vehicle, with the flexibility of being able to reconfigure the above-mentioned configurations. Furthermore there is also a need for a system that can generate weight savings during use of the plow with the blade only, or the sidewing only, when required, while also having the option of using the plow with a combination of the two.